“I honestly don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “NovaTor was all we ever knew. I can’t imagine how disorienting the outside world must have been for her when your grandpa set her free. I remember somewhat how I felt when I was kidnapped and saw the sun for the first time. But that’s all I remember. The sun. I can’t imagine how intense the entire world must have seemed.”
West was silent again and chewed on his bottom lip as his head sagged forward. “She had nowhere to go.”
“West,” I said quietly. “I don’t know how we’re ever supposed to find her.”
He suddenly sniffed and wiped the back of his sleeve at the corner of his eye. It took me a moment to realize that he wasn’t going to say anything.
“How is it, getting to spend time with your grandfather again?” I asked. Change of topic.
West gave a breathy chuckle and I saw a small smile spread on his face. “It’s…interesting. I mean, I haven’t forgotten what he was like growing up; driven, smart, focused. Just like he is now. He was never your typical grandpa. Back then he always assumed I’d become a doctor or scientist. That hasn’t changed.”
“Seems like he’s been keeping you busy ever since I brought him back,” I observed. “I kind of feel like this is the first time we’ve talked since we talked about…Eve One.”
West glanced over at me, knowing in his eyes. What I meant was the conversation we’d had about why it would have never worked between us.
“Yeah,” he finally said. “He’s been trying to keep me involved in the scientific side of things. I think he resents me acting like a soldier.”
“Soldiers are important too these days,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said through a yawn that suddenly overtook him.
I climbed to my feet and extended a hand to him. He took it and I pulled him to standing position. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held him tight. He took a deep, shaking breath before letting me go. Eve One was still heavy on his mind.
“Goodnight,” I said.
He gave me a small, appreciative smile, and turned down the hall.
I stepped back inside Morgan’s room, collapsed into another chair, and fixed my eyes on Morgan.
A steady but slow beeping rhythm filled the room. Beep beep. Pause. Beep Beep. Pause. And then the quicker one. Beep Beep. Tiny pause. Beep beep.
Two faint hearts. Only one that had a chance of continuing.
Avian’s hand suddenly twitched and his head slipped off the side of the chair. He jerked up just before he fell. He bolted upright in it, looking around the room with bloodshot eyes.
“It’s okay,” I reassured him. I crossed the room and sank onto my knees next to him. “I’ve been keeping an eye on her. Everything has seemed normal.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Thanks,” he said, stifling a yawn.
“Why don’t you take my sleeping bag and get some more rest,” I said, nodding my head to where it sat rolled up in the hall. “I can stay up with her tonight.”
“No, I’m—”
“No, you’re not okay to stay up,” I said, cutting him off. I stood and grabbed the rolled up bag. I opened it up along the farther wall where Dr. Evans had been watching from earlier. “Get some sleep,” I insisted. “You’re going to have an intense day tomorrow.”
He glanced over at Morgan and looked at her for a long moment before his eyelids slowly dropped closed and open again. He was barely even awake.
“Okay,” he said in a slurred voice. “But you wake me up the second anything changes.”
“I will,” I said with a nod.
Avian shuffled across the room and collapsed into the sleeping bag. He was asleep before I even zipped the side up around him.
Like time always does, it rolled by slow and quiet. I thought about seeking out Dr. Evans to see how the TorBane doses were coming along, but I didn’t particularly enjoy his company or his comments about my sister or the baby.
So I watched Morgan, watched Avian, and watched the clock.
At exactly 3:49 AM, there was a faraway sound. Far enough away sounding that I knew it was loud in its location.
The location was the door leading to the underground levels.
Checking Morgan’s monitors, I ducked out of the room, shotgun in hand. The light in the hallway was dim and the ventilation system had just kicked on, dulling my sense of hearing. I paused at the bottom of the stairway, looking up to the landing that led to the scientist’s offices.
No traces of an intruder.
Silently, I made my way up the stairs, to the door that opened up into the main lobby.
It was closed, just as it should be.
I tried to reason with myself as I made my way back down to the second underground level, that it was nothing but an old building settling down for the day after being disturbed. But I couldn’t deny that my ears had heard something.
When I got back to the second floor, I scouted the halls, checking Bill and West’s rooms, but there was no sign of disturbance. Finally, I got back to Morgan’s room and stood vigil in the doorway.
SEVENTEEN
There were no more misplaced sounds until 5:08, and then there was the high-pitched flat-line buzz.
“Avian!” I yelled as I darted to her side, but it wasn’t needed. Avian was on his feet already.
“Her heart’s stopped,” he said, placing his hands on her chest and starting chest compressions. “See those paddles over there?” He nodded toward them. “Flip that switch and charge it up to two hundred.”
I did as he said and handed the paddles over to Avian. He placed them on her chest and turned them on. Morgan’s chest surged up off the bed before falling flat against it once again. The heart rate monitor blipped once and flat-lined again.
“Charge it again!” Avian yelled. Just as I did, Bill and West appeared in the doorway.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” West asked, his eyes wide as he watched Morgan’s chest surge up off the bed again.
“Go get your grandfather,” Avian said as he nodded for me to charge it again. “I have a feeling this is it. I give her two more minutes before we have to get the baby out of her.”
West darted out of the room and down the hall.
“If she goes, I’m going to need both of you to help get the baby out,” Avian said, tossing aside the paddles and starting chest compressions again. “Bill, you’ll help me roll her into the surgery room. Then you’ll both help me cut her open. I hope blood doesn’t make you squeamish.”
The both of us just nodded. In a world like ours, it was difficult to be turned off by the sight of blood.
Avian glanced up at the monitor that tracked the baby’s heart. It had slowed significantly. He swore, while continuing to press on her chest.
“It’s been two minutes, Avian,” I said, looking up at the clock above the door.
“Okay,” Avian said, backing away from Morgan and pulling the lines from her body. “Time of death is 5:14.” He unhooked the large tube that spouted from her throat. “Let’s get her to the operating room.”
Tunnel vision threatened to overtake me as Bill and Avian pushed Morgan’s bed down the hall to the surgical room, but I focused on the roundness of her belly and told myself I had no place blacking out at a time like this. I held the door open for them and stood to the side as they wheeled the bed in.
I had a feeling that in another time, this surgery would not go as it did. It would be far more sterile, more organized, less chaotic. And the mother wouldn’t be dead.
But we had precious seconds and a doctor who had never performed this type of surgery before.
“Bill, you take this here,” Avian said, handing him a small, ghostly white tube. He flipped a switch and it started sucking air. “Keep the blood and fluids out of the way so I can see what I’m doing. I’m going to make the incisions and Eve, when I tell you to, you’re going to help push the baby out from the top of her stomach.”